Packaging can be the Achilles heel of any business trying go green, but researchers at the University of Bath and Campden BPI are trying to make green packaging ubiquitous with a high-speed environmentally friendly packaging process that uses recycled materials and a minimal amount of plastic.
The project, which costs half a million pounds, is focusing on the improvement of packaging used for products like rice, pasta, and chips. The researchers ultimately hope that their research will reduce the amount of material used by 13 percent and save over 39,000 tons of landfill waste per year.
Additionally, the research team is working on sealing processes that can work with biodegradable materials in an attempt to make "form-fill and seal" packaging even moe environmentally friendly.
The University of Bath effort is part of a larger trend towards the adaptation of green packaging. Amazon.com recently announced that it plans on shipping packages in plain brown cardboard boxes, and the newest MacBook is shipped in completely recyclable packaging.